Ellis: Winward “Kept it Together” to Seal GTD Title

Winward Racing’s GTD title in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was the result of the “heavy lifting” done during the first half of the season according to Philip Ellis, who noted the team “kept it together” despite scoring just a single podium in the last four rounds.

Eighth place in Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans season finale was enough for Ellis and full season co-driver Russell Ward to claim the title, as they finished one place clear of nearest championship rivals Turner Motorsport.

In the process, Ellis and Ward succeed Paul Miller Racing pairing Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers as class champions, marking the first time a Mercedes-AMG team won the GTD title since the WeatherTech Championship was formed in 2014.

Winward experienced a strong start to the season with four wins out of the first five races, which included class victories in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac and Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.

Ellis, while dedicating the title to Winward’s crew, noted that those early victories “did the heavy lifting” in the standings and allowed the team to remain out front even as it didn’t win another race after June.

“I think we have one of the easier jobs on the team as drivers, and the team really made it easy this year,” said Ellis.

“They [did] such a perfect job. They always had a great car, great strategy in the pit box. We were always one step ahead of the competition. As drivers we just had to bring it home.

“I think we did the heavy lifting earlier this year [in] the first part of the season, and we had some more difficult races at the end in Indy and also here.

“We still kept it together. We didn’t really put a foot wrong and [wrapped] the championship up.”

Ward, who also serves as team principal alongside his driving duties, described the title as the “end goal” for the Texan team.

“You come here, and you want to win races,” Ward said.

“You want to be competitive. All of us have eyes on the championship. It’s just an incredible result for the team.

“A lot of long, hard nights. It’s just been difficult but exciting at the same time. It’s really good to be able to bring it home.

“Looking forward to getting back with the crew and going really celebrating this win because those are the guys who get it done.

“As drivers we come here for the interview session, but in reality all the work is done at home, and we show up here and just try to execute.”

Winward experienced championship success on both sides of the Atlantic last weekend, as its European arm sealed up the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup title with Maro Engel and Lucas Auer at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Christian Hohenadel, who heads up the team’s European operations from its Altendiez base, revealed he was on site at Road Atlanta as opposed to the Sprint Cup finale in Spain.

“I have to admit that it was hard for me to be in Atlanta instead of Barcelona,” Hohenadel later said .

“But two such significant successes for our team on two different continents on the same weekend are just amazing!”